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Theta lingua franca: A common mid‐frontal substrate for action monitoring processes
Author(s) -
Cavanagh James F.,
ZambranoVazquez Laura,
Allen John J. B.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01293.x
Subject(s) - psychology , novelty , p3b , event related potential , prefrontal cortex , stimulus (psychology) , cognitive psychology , negativity effect , p3a , multitude , electroencephalography , neuroscience , communication , cognition , social psychology , philosophy , epistemology
We present evidence that a multitude of mid‐frontal event‐related potential ( ERP ) components partially reflect a common theta band oscillatory process. Specifically, mid‐frontal ERP components in the N 2 time range and error‐related negativity time range are parsimoniously characterized as reflections of theta band activities. Forty participants completed three different tasks with varying stimulus–response demands. Permutation tests were used to identify the dominant time–frequency responses of stimulus‐ and response‐locked conditions as well as the enhanced responses to novelty, conflict, punishment, and error. A dominant theta band feature was found in all conditions, and both ERP component amplitudes and theta power measures were similarly modulated by novelty, conflict, punishment, and error. The findings support the hypothesis that generic and reactive medial prefrontal cortex processes are parsimoniously reflected by theta band activities.